Growing Pains
by zokens
Summary: Ben isn't too sure how he feels about his Uncle Luke's foster child, Rey.
1. Ears and Freckles

It all started out when Benjamin Chewbacca Skywalker Organa Solo was born. He was the pride and joy of Han and Leia and he was loved very dearly by his grandparents; Padmé and Anakin as well as his uncle Luke.

Ben was a very quiet boy. Awkward in a way. He was taller than all of the other kids at school and he was very self preserved. He always thought that his ears were too big and he hated the moles and freckles on his face. He preferred to sit with his grandmother at the Naboo Estate and play in the garden instead of going out and socializing with other kids. His absolute dream was to be a famous car racer like his grandfather, uncle, and father were so he spent hours watching the races with them when he wasn't stuck by Padmé's side.

Leia was a Criminal Defense Attorney and spent most of her time either in her office or court. That didn't make her a bad mother. She was just ambitious. Ben loved his mother with all of his heart.

Ben's world changed when he met the girl that his uncle Luke was fostering. He was twelve years old and the girl was two.

" Ben, could you come in here for a minute!" Anakin called for his grandson.

Ben dropped his toy car and ran into the room, stopping as he started at his family with wide, doe eyes.

" I want you to meet someone, Benny" his uncle Luke said. Ben scrunched his nose up. Did his uncle bring a girl home? Girls have cooties.

" who is it?"

" this is Rey." He motioned to the little girl that Padmé had on her hip.

" ew. Put her back."

" Ben! She's a foster child. Her name is Rey. She's two. "

" girls are gross. I can't like them. She has cooties."

" Give her a chance. She's an orphan. She doesn't have any family, Ben."

The little girl stared at Ben with wide eyes and giggled. Padmé knelt down and let Rey touch Ben.

Ben shied away and whined in protest. " I don't want her here!"

Rey giggles and tugged on Ben's ears gently, then grinned as a bit of drool pooled out of her mouth.

" let go! She's hurting me! Uncle Luke!" He yelled, trying to shove the toddler away from him.

Luke took Rey back and smiled fondly. " she's trying to play. You have to be gentle with her she's still a little too young to roughhouse with"

" Why did you bring her here? Why not a boy?"

" Because I didn't want a boy. I wanted a girl"

" Yucky!" He pouted.

Ben did not like the little girl named Rey. She was loud and annoying and messy. She got peanut butter and jelly stuck in his hair and tugged on his ears and scribbled on all of his drawings of cars. He hated her.

By the time Ben was twelve and Rey was four he had gotten used to her a little bit. Rey followed him around like a shadow and her favorite time was when Ben came home from school because she would like to play with him. He taught her all kinds of things like how to find the best worms for fishing and how to roughhouse good. They liked to wrestle in the mud, but Ben knew not to be too rough on her since she was still so little. Rey growled as she watched Ben from her spot in the grass. She leapt up and grabbed onto his shoulder, toppling over into the mud.

Ben let out a soft groan.

" you got me again, Rey-Rey!"

Rey giggles and puffed her cheeks out proudly as she looked at Ben.

Ben giggled back. " you're covered In mud!"

" you too!" She chirped, then shoved Ben again. Ben was stronger than her, but he let her have this and flopped back into the mud beside her. She climbed onto him and began to bounce on his stomach, squealing with delight. " I WIN! I WIN! OOOH! "

" good job, Rey."

" what's my prize?"

" Prize?"

" yeah. I want a prize!" She huffed.

" why?"

" cause dats what happens when you win!" She said as if it was obvious. Ben grinned at the sound of her slight lisp.

Padmé sat on the patio, watching the two kids from the distance as she sipped on her tea. She had a hunch one day that these two would be more than friends and she honestly adored them. Ben hadn't liked her very much when they first met, but little Rey was so obsessed with him that she grew on him. She was much like her namesake. A little ray of sunshine. Padmé slowly quirked her eyebrow as she heard Rey demand a prize from Ben.

" what kind of prize?" Ben asked again.

Rey pouted and looked at Ben for a moment, then leaned down and smeared mud all over his face. He let out a disgusted groan and tried to roll over, pushing Rey off of him.

" yuck! What was that for?"

Rey shrugged and rolled slightly as she lifted her head to look at Ben once more. The time in the sun had done wonders for the little girl's pale skin.

" dunno. " she mumbled.

" okay. Well, your prize?"

" Rey slowly got up from the mud and shook her body off like she was a dog. " I want to get married" she stated bluntly.

" what?"

" like Pad and Ani! And like Leia and Hawn!" She giggled.

" married? You have to be in love for that!"

" I am!"

" with who, sunshine?" He poker one of the freckles on her nose.

Rey giggles. " you, silly!"

Ben blushed and chuckled nervously. " me?"

She nodded. " yeah!"

" I don't.."

Padmé made her way over to the two children and scooped Rey up in her arms, not minding the mud caking on her dress. " Ben, Rey. Let's get you two cleaned up for dinner and I'll help you plan your wedding" she smirked.

" aw come on Grandma!" Ben squeaked in protest.

Rey giggled and squirmed in delight.


	2. Firsts

That summer when Rey had just turned four and Ben was still thirteen the pair had gotten married in the Naboo Estate garden. It was to humor Rey since it was her prize, and Ben wouldn't have been annoyed if he wasn't a teenager. Rey was too little and wanted to do more things with Ben, but he wanted to hang with friends, and date people who weren't four year olds named Rey. Rey was so happy that Ben gave her a kiss on the cheek and they shared a ring-pop as their wedding bands.

Once the next school year began Ben got a girlfriend during school. Her name was Gwendolyn Phasma but she went by her last name. It had something to do about being on the Volleyball team at school and she also stated her name was boring. Ben didn't mind this much since he was happy to have a girlfriend. Ben got into Rugby during the summer and joined the varsity team, while working at his fathers race track company on the weekends, even though he couldn't get paid yet, he still enjoyed being around the Falcon did well for being a small company.

Rey danced in the gardens while the family dog, Chewbacca barked and chased her. Chewie always had to keep his eyes on her because Rey got into trouble once while she was down by the pond. Rey had leaned in too close to the edge to watch the fish and tumbled in. She didn't know how to swim and thankfully Chewie was able to grab her by her shirt and drag her to the surface. Rey developed a fear of the water since then, but Chewie and her were inseparable since that day. Rey plopped down and began to pull at the dandelions, blowing on them. She let out a soft giggle as soon as she watched the petals blow away in the wind. She looked at the shaggy Newfoundland next to her and held the dandelion to him.

" Make a wish, Chewie" she squealed, demanding that the dog blow as she had earlier. The dog barked and took a huge bite out of the flower as if it was a dog treat.

" No no no" she shakes her head in frustration. " you supposed to make a wish and blow silly! it not a tweet" she huffed in frustration at the dog who licked her face in retaliation.

Ben sat on his grandmother's bench and watched the little girl play. He was still surprised by how active she always seemed to be, even when she was two she was a handful. He lifted his head when he heard the adults talking about Rey. He was curious so he began to walk closer to their table, wondering what they could possibly be discusing

Luke shakes his head as he watched Rey. " I want to enroll her in school, but I need permissions since I'm a temporary guardian."

" Why can't you get full custody?" Anakin asked, frowning.

" That isn't how it works, you know that. It's already a messy situation with Unkar Plutt as her social worker, and-"

Leia cut her twin off as she groaned. " god, I don't know how that man managed to be a Social Worker. He's a piece of shit if I ever met one!"

" He is pretty awful," Luke agreed. " regardless, he says I cant get custody."

" That's bullshit!" Han snorts. " she adores you, what do you mean you CANT get custody.

" Why cant you get custody?"

" She still has living kin, according to what he says"

" Why didn't they take her in then?" Padmé demanded, placing her hands on her hips in annoyance.

" i don't know. they won't release the details to me. Its messy, but I'm the best guardian until the court date"

" When is the court date?"

" a few months, they haven't told me the exact date yet." Luke admitted.

" WHAT?" Anakin growled.

" They're doing investigations and gathering what they need"

" They've been doing that since you came into guardianship of her!"

" Like I said, it's complicated."

" Does she even have a last name?"

" Not one on file. I'm supposed to be meeting the lawyers tomorrow"

" Who's firm have you decided to go against? Last time you were here I gave you a bunch of numbers and cards" Leia mused.

" The Rogue firm. I met with them last week to determine matters of the case"

Leia furrowed her brows. " that's a good one. Jyn and Cassian are phenomenal lawyers, they'll do a good job with their investigation I'm sure. Do you know who the detective is?" She took a sip of her camomile tea.

" Detective Amilyn Holdo, I heard she was a friend of yours, and I asked specifically for her"

" We were roommates in our undergrad. she's wonderful. She'll do a good job, Luke" Leia promised.

Luke nodded in agreement.

Ben gasped at the revelation. What was wrong with Rey? Why were there so many lawyers involved? Did her family not want her?

He couldn't imagine having a family that wouldn't want her, she was a sweet little girl.

when Rey met Jyn and Cassian for the first time, she thought they were nice. They gave her a lollipop and Jyn told her that she was pretty. Rey smiled for a week after that. Luke had been fussing over Rey the entire morning. Unkar Plutt had been planning on coming for a visit and it made him paranoid. Luke knew he could be a dirty man and if anything was out of the ordinary Luke may never see Rey again.

Rey huffed and pushed her hands at Luke. " no no!" She whined, shaking her head. " it hurts."

Luke sighed and placed his hand on her head. " I know, but I gotta get the tangles out of your hair!"

" I don't like." She protested. She had recently learned how to enunciate her words better and fell into the phase of protesting at every single thing.

" I know. I know. We'll make those pancakes that you love so much if you let me sit and brush your hair."

" with chocowat chips?"

" yep. Maybe I'll make it extra Chocolatey."

Rey stopped squirming and allowed Luke to brush her hair.

As soon as her hair was brushed and she was changed, Luke helped her sit on the counter and instructed her to stir the ingredients while he manned the stove. He, of course, wouldn't let her anywhere near the hot surface but allowed her to mix and even lick the end of the spoon once everything was cooking.

Rey did NOT like the mean Unkar Plutt. He was old and ugly and kept scolding her for everything, but Luke told her to ignore him. After Unkar's inspection, she stuck her tongue out at him as he drove away.

" he's a meanie" she huffed

" he is a big meanie, huh, kid?" Luke agreed. " go and play while I call the lawyers."

Rey was entirely too young to know the definition of a lawyer, but she did. She knew Luke's sister was one, and she knew Jyn and Cassian were ones too. They wanted to help Luke so she could stay with him forever. She loved Luke. He was nice and funny and he always played with her.

Luke sat in his office, watching Rey as he kept the lawyers on the line.

" is there anything you can say?"

" court date is next week, we have a lot of information regarding how you are as a guardian and we have a good chance to win this thing. From what we've seen there's nothing to bring to the table from the other party."

" do they even want her?"

" it's not that. Her father is a drunk and her mother is a drug dealer. She won't be able to stay with them. They're the ones who abandoned her at the Niima orphanage."

" do they even want her now?"

" they say they do and they're trying, but it's not looking good for them. Don't worry about this, Luke.." Cassian replies.

" she's safest in your custody, Luke." Jyn added.

Luke sighed in relief. Keeping Rey safe is all he wanted to do. He had a soft spot for the little girl and wanted to ensure her safety as long as he could, maybe even adopt her longer down the line.

When Rey was four and a half years old, she went to court for the first time in her life.

She remembered that day only because she got to wear a pretty purple dress and wore a ribbon in her hair.

The entire Skywalker family had sat on their side of the courtroom with Rey in Han's lap. The doors opened to reveal two unfamiliar people. A man and a woman. The woman started to cry as soon as they caught sight of her.

" Oh! My baby Keira!" The woman wailed, reaching for her.

Rey scrunched her nose and then recoiled into Han's chest. She didn't know who Keira was, why did she think she was her?

Soon after the woman's outburst, the judge called order to the court and made everyone sit down. Rey stared in confusion. She didn't know what was happening, but she knew it was about her. She was getting bored and restless, but knew she had to be quiet because it was important. She Began to play with the lace on her dress, looking up every single time she heard her name.

Ben was silent the entire time, listening curiously to the lawyers debate and go over specifics of the case. His mother was silent, but gripped onto his fathers hand gently. He was curious to learn more about Rey's biological family.

" in this case, Keira Rey Kenobi will not be released to her biological parents, she will remain in custody of Luke Skywalker until further notice." The judge revealed after the long hour. It seemed like eternity to Rey, she had even taken a small nap.

The woman began to scream and cry, throwing an absolute tantrum. Rey frowned a bit. She didn't know why this woman was so upset about her.

" Benny?" She whispered, leaning over

Ben raised his eyebrow. " what, Rey?"

" Why are they sad?"

" theyre sad because you cant go with them"

" Why would I want to go with them? I don't even know them"

Ben sighed. He wasn't sure if he should tell her the reason.

" Maybe when you're older we'll explain" Leia whispered. " for now, don't worry about it. We'll go get some ice cream and celebrate that you're allowed to stay with us."

" I can stay?"

" Yes, little one. your'e allowed to stay here with us"

Rey smiled happily. " good, I like it here. I get to stay with you all. I'm happy being here"

"Well, were happy you're here with us too" Han patted her head, smiling happily.

The Skywalker family was happy they got to keep Rey with them.


End file.
